The present disclosure relates to components for a gas turbine engine, and more particularly, to cooling features for an airfoil therefor.
Gas turbine engines typically include a compressor section to pressurize airflow, a combustor section to burn a hydrocarbon fuel in the presence of the pressurized air, and a turbine section to extract energy from the resultant combustion gases. Gas path components, such as turbine blades, often include airfoil cooling that may be accomplished by external film cooling, internal air impingement, and forced convection, either separately, or in combination. In forced convection cooling, compressor bleed air flows into the turbine section blades and vanes to continuously remove thermal energy.
Although airfoil cooling has proven effective for cooling of hot section airfoil components, increased temperate engine operations may also effect hardware adjacent to the airfoils such as the rotor disk.